Benny Green
b. 4 April 1963, New York, USA. An exciting and hard-swinging pianist in the Bud Powell mould, Green ranks alongside Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown, as one of a number of talented hard-bop keyboard stars to have graduate from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers training ground during America's hard-bop revival of the '80s, leading bands and beginning to establish his own voice towards the end of the decade. A student of classical piano from the age of seven, Green developed a taste for jazz through the influence of his tenor saxophone playing father, and was keen enough as a child to start borrowing records and imitating the bebop sounds of the '40s and '50s. He played in school bands, until his keen ear and obvious commitment brought him to the attention of singer Fay Carroll, with whom he got his first real taste of a working jazz band—learning invaluable lessons about accompaniment and the blues, and gaining his first chance to play in a trio context as a way of opening the set. Still in his teens, Green filled the piano chair in a quintet co-led by trumpeter Eddie Henderson and saxophonist Hadley Caliman, and a 12-piece led by bassist Chuck Israels. On finishing high-school, Green moved to the west coast and freelanced around the San Francisco Bay area, gaining experience working as a sideman. But it was with his return to New York in the Spring of 1982 that Green's career took a swift upward turn, benefiting from studies with Walter Bishop Jnr. and joining Betty Carter's band in April 1983—the beginning of a four year stint of performing, recording and learning with jazz's most respected vocalist. The piano chair in Art Blakey's prestigious Jazz Messengers followed, and then, in 1989, a year with the Freddie Hubbard Quintet. By 1990, Green had already led a couple of blowing dates on the Criss Cross label, but it was with his Blue Note debut ( LINEAGE ) that Green really came of age, earning international respect and a reputation as one of Blue Note's most exciting new stars. Since 1991 he has been touring with his regular, finely-tuned trio comprising bassist Christian McBride and drummer Carl Allen.